Hi Proof listeners, Hannah Crowley here.

So I have some weird eating habits.

I consider myself a vet, that's a vegetarian except for pepperoni pizza.

I really don't eat meat, I don't love the texture of it, and I also at times can't really

stop thinking about the animal, what they go through.

But pepperoni pizza is just so delicious, I can't help it.

Which it just feels arbitrary, but you know, everybody, everybody draws that line in their

head somewhere.

I spoke with science writer and reporter Sarah Vitech about this arbitrary line.

We all draw about what we will and will not eat.

Yeah, so I was thinking about it a lot, Hannah, and people certainly have their own systems

for like, which animals they eat and which animals they won't eat.

Like I know someone who goes by the perceived IQ of an animal, and it seems like you're

kind of going sort of with how much you can tell it's an animal, which I think is really

funny.

It's fun.

Yeah, I go like, I think about IQ too, but then if it's really delicious, you know, and

it's shaped so far away from what the actual animal is, like pulverized into oblivion,

like pepperonis on pizza, yeah, I still want to eat it.

So just some degree it is arbitrary, but I think for most people, they draw the line based

on which animals they think can feel pain, or which animals they think have feelings

at all, which we sort of commonly summarize as sentience.

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